SIC 
US 

SIC 

SIC 
SK 
SIC 
SIC 

SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 



c^<j-V<^' 



JSIOSStCSKSiCSiCXCSKSIC^S^SKSICSICSIC^SKSICSK 




^/ 



ADDRESS 



o F 



SIC 
SIC 

5^ 
SIC 

SIC 
SIC 
5S 
SIC 

ss 

SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 



CHIEF JUSTICE SIIAW 



SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 



SIC 

SIC 
SIC 

SIC 
5^ 
3^ 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 
SIC 







AN 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE 



NEW COURT HOUSE 



IN WORCESTER, 



SEPTEMBER 30, 1§4 5, 



BY THE 

HON. LEMUEL SHAW, 

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUTREME JUDICIAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 






\ 



WORCESTER: 
PRINTED BY HENRY J. ROWLAND. 

1845. 









J. 



Worcester, Sept. 30, 1845. 
Sir: 

At a meeting of tlie Bar of the County of Worcester, held at the Court 
House tliis morniug, it \vas unanimously voted, that the thanks of tlie Bar be 
respectfully presented to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Coui't, for his 
instructive and deeply interesting Address, delivered at the opening of the Court, 
for the first time, in the new Court House ; and that the Chief Justice bo requested 
to fiuTiish a copy thereof to bo placed in the Archives of the County of Worcester, 
and to permit the publication of the Adckess. 

I take great satisfaction in being the appointed organ of the Bar to communi- 
cate their doings to your Honor. 

With gi-eat respect, 

I am, Sir, your obedient serv't, 

CHABLES ALLEN. 
To the Hon'blo Lemuel Shaw, 

Chief Justice, &c. 



Worcester, 30 Sept. 1S45. 
Hon. Charles Allex, 

Dear Sir : In pursuance of the request of the Bar, so kindly communi- 
cated by you, a copy of the Address, this day delivered at the opening of the New 
Coixrt House, prepared in great haste, and in the hurry of urgent avocations, is 
herewith placed at your disposal. 

I am, Su-, with the highest respect for the Bar and kind regards for yourself, 

Your obedient servant, 

LEMUEL SHAW. 



A request, shnilar to that of the Bar, was made by the County Commis- 
sioners of the County of Worcester. 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen of the Coitnty CommissionerSy 
Gentlemen of the Bar, and 

Gentlemen of the County of Worcester : 

Assembled, as we are, for the first time, in this spacious 
and massive edifice, appropriated by your care to the high 
social purpose, the administration of justice, in which it is 
our vocation to participate, it seems proper for us to pause, 
before entering upon the ordinary routine of business, and 
indulge in a few of the reflections which the occasion is fit- 
ted to suggest. 

Architecture, although it has objects of utility, beyond 
those of painting and sculpture, yet like them, in addition 
to those purposes of utility, may minister to the refined 
taste of an enlightened people, and in this respect tends to 
mark the progress of a community in true civilization. Whilst 
contributing to the essential wants of a people, its progress 
and improvement manifest their advancement in the cultiva- 
tion of good taste. Nor is this to be disregarded by those 
who look to the improvement of our social condition. It is 
too late in the age of the world to insist that society cannot 
look beyond a rigid utilitarianism, and must confine its regards 
to those wants, which regard our external condition only. 
Food, raiment, and shelter are without doubt essential to our 
well being, and any system which should not provide a sup- 



ply for these wants would be defective. But since the bene- 
ficent Author of our being has superadded to these, the senti- 
ment of symmetry and beauty, of elegance and grandeur, 
since the full development and gratification of these higher 
powers of the soul, tends to the purity and elevation, and 
thus to the happiness of the whole man, who shall say that 
all the means which tend to awaken and gratify these senti- 
ments, are not as much within the sphere of real utility, as 
those which provide for the wants of our external nature. 
They are therefore not beneath the just regard of those, who 
are entrusted with the great interests of social improvement. 
But in indulging a taste for improved architecture, we 
must never overlook that deeply seated and ever predominent 
sentiment of the mind, which has so great an influence it- 
self upon many of the rules of architecture, a sentiment of 
fitness, of propriety, of perceived adaptation of means to 
ends. — This almost instinctive perception of fitness often ren- 
ders that beautiful which without it would appear offensive. 
It is a dictate of this sentiment, that beauty and elegance can 
be sought only after all the demands for security, comfort, 
and accommodation have been provided for. Sumptuous 
and expensive public buildings therefore can never gratify 
a chaste, cultivated and refined taste, excepting when 
they are raised by a community who have arrived at 
a condition of affluence. The erection of an expensive pub- 
lic building, by a people in narrow circumstances, where 
their roads and bridges are deficient, the poor unprovided 
for, public worship meanly supported, schools and other 
public institutions stinted for want of means, would not only 
be unwise, but as great a departure from the dictates of good 
taste, as that of a man of small means who should erect a 
showy dwelling, whilst his children are suffering for want of 
education, and his family for the comforts of life. Most of 
us are acquainted with instances showing in what regard 
such a display of architectural taste is held, in popular esti- 



mation, by the significant appellations applied to the struc- 
ture, of the builder's " folly." 

One other consideration is important in determining the 
place^ in which architecture should be held, and it is this, 
that it is not necessary to the enjoyment of the essential ben- 
efits of society. Elegant architecture is to be regarded as 
the decoration, not as the foundation of the social edifice. 
A young community therefore, or a community struggling 
with poverty, are not to be deterred by any sense of false 
shame from providing the means of education and improve- 
ment, however coarse and scanty, because they are unable to 
invest them in the sumptuous and graceful attire, with which 
their own good taste, if aided by aflSuence, would delight to 
invest them. 

Who can doubt that our pious ancestors in their days of 
destitution, struggling with poverty, could worship God with 
as much ardor of devotion, and solemn earnestness, in the 
naked meetinghouse, of logs or boards and shingles, scarcely 
sufficient to exclude the blasts of the bleak northwester, as 
those who assemble under the spires and domes of the lofty 
cathedral, and listen to the deep tones of the pealing organ. 

And yet when affluence has succeeded to want, when 
peace has scattered her blessings and the people are pros- 
perous and wealthy, will it not be readily admitted that the 
more finished, graceful and expensive building of marble or 
granite, beautiful in its proportions, and grand in its dimen- 
sions, set apart for the assembling of the people for public 
worship, expresses a sentiment congenial to true piety, to a 
sense of gratitude to the Giver of good, for blessings conferred? 
Does it not significantly express a just appreciation of these 
blessings, and thus cherish the sentiment of devotion ? 

The same illustration may be drawn from the school- 
house. When the people were few and destitute, when 
public burdens were heavy, when great efforts were required 
to defend their territory against a vigilant and savage enemy, 



8 

to subdue the forest, to make roads, erect bridges and pre- 
pare the country for the prosperity which was to follow, the 
square wooden school-house with its single chimney and its 
padlocked door, standing on the edge of the public common, 
was a structure not to be despised, for it was the best the 
country could afford, and with all its humble pretensions, it 
furnished the young and aspiring minds of the whole people, 
with those rudiments of knowledge, and those essential 
principles of moral obligation, which lie at the foundation of 
social duty, which fitted them to be good men, good citizens, 
and intelligent patriots, and qualified them when at years of 
maturity, to lay the foundation and erect the superstructiire of 
our great social edifice. But will any true-hearted American 
who hears me, venture to assert that that same square wooden 
school-house, and the very slender means of instruction af- 
forded by its two or three months of winter school, would be 
sufficient to satisfy the reasonable wants, the moderate ex- 
pectations, of the present people of Massachusetts ? 

Surely not. The last half century has been prolific in an 
unexampled degree, of discoveries and improvements in 
every department of science and art, and has greatly enlarg- 
ed the boundaries of useful knowledge. It has trained up 
a race of men thoroughly qualified to communicate this 
knowledge to the rising generation, and thus to increase the 
means and the power of useful education. And a like 
period of unexampled prosperity has enabled the people to 
secure the benefits of such an education to their children. 
Such a change in the condition of a people demands a cor- 
responding change in their system of education, a change 
which shall not only regard the rudiments of knowledge, but 
have a just regard, after having secured the essential means 
of stability in their social condition, to the arts which minis- 
ter to a refined and cultivated taste. 

Amongst the essential elements of a free government, de- 
signed to secure in the highest extent, the rights and liber- 



ties of the whole people, is an administration of justice, an 
application of the law, and the principles of right, to the ac- 
tual condition of the citizens in all their various relations and 
circumstances, an administration of justice, in the striking 
and beautiful language of our Declaration of Rights, " as free 
and impartial as the lot of humanity will permit." Upon 
this point our constitution dwells with emphatic and reitera- 
ted expression, indicating the paramount importance, which 
this department of government held, in the estimation of 
the framers of that Constitution. Whilst ample provision is 
made for the conduct of the government, for the exercise of 
all those functions which properly belong to Executive and ad- 
ministrative duties, and whilst the fullest powers are confer- 
red on the Legislature to prescribe all good laws, and whole- 
some regulations, to restrain and punish crimes, to secure the 
rights and liberties of every subject, all this availeth noth- 
ing in the estimate of the Constitution, without such a pro- 
vision for the intelligent, impartial and independent admin- 
istration of justice, as to give to every individual citizen, 
whatever may be his social condition, the full benefit of the 
law, and to secure him from the operation of every power 
not warranted by law. It is the province of jurisprudence 
to restrain the exercise of unlicensed authority, practically 
to impose the restraining power of the law upon every indi- 
vidual, however elevated in social and political condition, and 
to apply the sustaining arm of the law to the support of right, 
liberty, and justice, to every individual, however humble. 

Such being the character of this great public institution, 
as viewed in the light of the Constitution, how ought it to be 
regarded, not only by the wise and reflecting, but by the 
whole people ? Although all have a deep and abiding inter- 
est in it, yet it attracts little public notice, it commands little 
popular applause, it cometh not with observation, and is per- 
haps known rather by its terrors, than by its beneficence. 

Such being the true and intrinsic importance of this great 
2 



10 

department of free government, it is a fit subject of inquiry 
did consideration, not only for statesmen, for politicians and 
public men, but for the people themselves, what is the most 
wise and judicious course of proceeding to make the jurispru- 
dence of a free state, efficient,useful and respectable, and capa- 
ble of conferring the highest benefits of which it is susceptible. 
Unquestionably the essential requisites to a proper adminis- 
tration of justice, are impartiality, integrity and intelligence 
in all those who either as judges, or jurors, are called upon to 
aid in the judicial investigation of truth. But these are es- 
sential requisites to the due administration of justice — every 
where and under all circumstances ; qualities which will 
shine by their own intrinsic lustre, whether displayed in the 
splended edifice of an old and affluent community, or in the 
rudest structure, in which a court is held, by the hardy pio- 
neers of the frontier settlements. 

But these great and essential conditions being secured, it 
becomes a considerate and reflecting community, to surround 
this great safeguard of their best interests, with those external 
circumstances which are best calculated to secure the affec- 
tion and command the respect of the people ; and when the 
people are prosperous and affluent, and other wants are pro- 
vided for, this object may be promoted to some extent, by a 
spacious, sumptuous and well constructed house, suited to 
the capacity and adapted to the cultivated taste of such a 
community. So far as it tends to promote order, harmony, 
dignity and propriety of manners on the part of all those con- 
cerned as actors, parties or spectators, so far as it tends to 
promote respect for the laws, and to impress on the public 
mind a due sense of their importance, the expense of such 
an edifice may be justified upon the strictest principles of 
utilitarian policy, 

I will not now undertake to describe in detail all the requi- 
sites of a good court-house, especially where it is designed to 
contain under the same roof, apartments for the officers of 



11 

courts, the County records, and public documents connected 
with them. The Court room should contain provisions for 
the health, comfort and accommodation of the Judges, jurors, 
attorneys, advocates and other officers of the Court, and for 
parties, w^itnesses and spectators. Space, light and air are 
amongst the essentials. To health and comfort, temper- 
ature and ventilation are of vital importance. By the w^ise 
and liberal rule of the common law, every court of justice is 
an open court, and the people have a right of access to it. 
Occasions of deep interest often occur, when many people 
avail themselves of this right, and the hall of justice becomes 
a crowded assembly. Without a provision for the introduc- 
tion of a large supply of pure air, the atmosphere of such 
an assembly becomes unfit for respiration, and loss of health 
is too often the consequence. But it is believed that the im- 
portance of this subject is coming to be better understood, 
that science and skill have already done much to improve 
the ventilation of churches, the halls of legislation and jus- 
tice, and other places of public assembling : and it is earn- 
estly to be hoped, that no expense will be spared, and that 
science and ingenuity will apply all their resources, until a 
supply of pure air, so liberally provided for, by the Author of 
our existence, and so essential to energy, health and vitality, 
shall be supplied to all places of public assembling. 

Decent and even elegant and sumptuous furniture and ar- 
rangements in a court room, seem not out of place, when we 
consider how much they tend to promote order and decor- 
um, to secure quiet and stillness, to prevent vulgar and un- 
gentlemanly practices, inconsistent with the respect due to 
the place, and to the occasion. I hope I may be pardoned, 
for thus descending to particulars in regard to the de- 
corum always to be observed in the temple of justice, by 
those who consider how conducive propriety of manners is, 
to purity of sentiment, and how near akin purity of senti- 
ment is to integrity of principle. This decorum and pro- 



12 

priety of manners, so usually accompanying personal purity 
and self-respect, and so well adapted to promote them, are 
somewhere called the minor morals ; and perhaps, consider- 
ing their practical effect, they are not too insignificant to 
hold a place, in a well constructed code of ethics. 

Ours are not the times, nor are the institutions of free 
government those, which can spare any means, by which 
the law may maintain its hold upon the affection and re- 
spect of the people. Every body admits, in words, that the 
supremacy of the law is the safeguard of the people, but quid 
LEGES SINE MORiBus, wliat Can laws accomplish, without the 
efficient co-operation of the people. Almost daily, and from 
various parts of the country, do we hear of the triumph of 
lawless violence, not by individuals only, but by masses, who 
openly set the law at defiance, and violate the rights of life, 
liberty and property, sacrilegiously placing blind rage and 
sanguinary cruelty upon the throne of justice, and tramp- 
ling under foot all that is dear, in domestic, social or political 
life. Let us not hug ourselves in fancied security, on the 
consideration that these storms rage at a distance only, 
and whilst we hear the sound, their force has not reached 
our ov/n peaceful Commonwealth. God grant that it never 
may. But it cannot be forgotten that our cherished Com- 
monwealth has been the scene of similar outbreaks, that 
the Court House of this county has been desecrated by the 
presence of armed men, assembled not to support, but to 
prostrate the supremacy of the law. Let us then with all 
humility be watchful and vigilant to guard against the causes 
which would lead to a state of things so disastrous. Let us 
by every means, strive to promote a strong, healthy and abi- 
ding public opinion, upon this subject ; let us guard against 
the influence of any theory, however alluring, and however 
sincerely advanced by visionary enthusiasts, which, professing 
to follow the guidance of more refined humanity, impractica- 
ble and incompatible with the actual condition of society, 



Id 

would seek to destroy the respect of the community for the 
law and its administration, without which the dearest rights 
of humanity would be without protection. 

If in the opinion of any man, or class of men, the law is 
defective or erroneous, the Constitution has provided the only 
mode in which it can be corrected, which is by the Legisla- 
ture. But so long as it remains in force, it is to be respected 
as the law, and because it is the law, not grudgingly, and 
reluctantly, but with honesty and sincerity, because any 
departure from this fundamental rule of conduct, would put 
in jeopardy every interest and every institution which is 
worth preserving. 

Regarding the supremacy of the law, and the administra- 
tion of justice, as high and important interests; believing 
that whatever may tend to give efficiency and dignity to this 
high department of government, and to conciliate the respect 
and affection of the community towards it, are objects of 
universal public interest, we congratulate the magistrates, the 
members of the bar, and the people of the County of Wor- 
cester, upon the completion of this elegant building, set apart 
and dedicated to this purpose. Whilst it marks their pros- 
perity and affluence, it affords a substantial pledge of the 
high respect and the deep interest which they feel for the 
law and its officers, and their readiness to support them. As 
the house which we have recently left was a great improve- 
ment, both in utility and beauty, upon the humbler structure 
which it superseded, so is the building which we now enter, 
both in the beauty and magnificence of its architecture, and 
the ample accommodations which it affords, greatly in ad- 
vance of the latter. But superior as it is in elegance, sig- 
nificantly as it marks the progress of the community in taste 
and refinement, may it be regarded as an incitement to new 
efforts, may it serve not as a goal reached, but as a starting 
point to a new career of improvement in all the refinements 
of social life. 



14 

But in vain should we dedicate the house to the adminis- 
tration of jusiice, without a blessing from that Being who is 
the fountain of justice. Let us then humbly invoke the 
blessing of God, not upon the House only, but upon the 
minds and consciences of all those who may be called to act 
in it. Here may the law be dispensed in purity ; here may 
it ever manifest its supremacy not only in the sternness of its 
punishing, but in the beneficence of its protecting power. 

May all those who maybe invested with the office of judg- 
es, be endued with wisdom, be characterized by unbending 
integrity, and the strictest impartiality, and bring to the ex- 
ercise of their functions, the learning, industry and love of 
truth, which shall enable them to discharge their duties, with 
fidelity. 

May all jurors act under a due sense of the high trust re- 
posed in them, may they ever act with intelligence and im- 
partiality, and so conduct their inquiries, that the result of 
their deliberations shall be in fact what the term verdict im- 
ports, "perfect truth." 

May the strictest honesty and honor ever mark the con- 
duct of those, who may stand here as attornies and counsel- 
lors. May these walls resound with the tones of eloquence, 
of simple, natural, unaffected eloquence, flowing from a 
pure heart, which can alone reach the heart, never perver- 
ted to the purposes of chicanery or falsehood, but devoted 
to its proper and legitimate purpose, that of detecting guilt, 
of manifesting innocence, and advancing right and justice. 

And may all those of us, who are concerned in the admin- 
istration of justice, be ourselves admonished by these re- 
flections, be more deeply impressed with a sense of the re- 
sponsibility devolved upon us, by this high trust, and may 
we proceed to the discharge of our respective duties, with a 
more resolute determination to perform our whole duty, by 
the blessing of Heaven, to the utmost extent of our power, 
with strict fidelity. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 110 913 3 



